April Meal Plans - Week 3 ...the clean eating continues

It has been a crazy week...hmmm those words are nowhere near strong enough to describe the insane chaos that has surrounded this week. Livi still has awful allergies which has thrown her schedule into the black hole of early mornings and she is currently boycotting naps. These are not fun times people, but they will pass. To ride out the storm some extra indepth planning was called for.

So I'm sitting here today to plot out the next week worth of meals and snacks for everyone so that at least one thing will run like clockwork in this house.

April Meal Plans - Week 2

This week is all about trying to use up what I've got and clean out the pantry and freezer.

Monday: Crockpot Port Tenderloin and Cinnamon Apples, served with quinoa
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken and Butternut Risotto with sauteed baby spinach
Wednesday: Crockpot meatballs, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli
Thursday: Tosca's Tilapia, steamed brown rice and sauteed lima beans.
Friday: Clean Eating Broiled Round Steak, roasted potatoes and squash

In an ongoing effort to trick the testosterone infested members of my household into healthier eating there are a few random veggies that have snuck in here and there throughout these meals. I also want to take this week to start really going through the stuff in our pantry that seems to outlast the month. Some are random ingredients we just never seem to use and I'm not quite sure how they made our shopping list at one point but nevertheless I need the prime real estate they are taking up.

Off to grab some coupons and hit the store! Happy Sunday!

Holiday Recap-Recipes, Pictures and More

It took me getting sick and camping out on the couch to find time to write this. Two kiddos, work, hobbies there's just not enough time in the day is there.

This year we hosted a dessert party, did a day trip to Houston and back on Christmas Eve, and managed 4 Christmas celebrations in 42 hours. Talk about controlled chaos. The new van came in super handy, the kids were fabulous and I enjoyed every minute. of course I kept thinking to myself on the road...if I had an IPad I'd be writing right now hehehe! Thanks to all the family and friends who showered me with gift cards I think there's an IPad in my near future.

The natives are restless so I'll keep this short and sweet!

My favorite holiday recipe...hands down it was the Crockpot Chocolate Pudding Cake I made for our dessert party. It was quick to prep, cooked while we were out and about and combined with the timer on our coffee pot, allowed me to arrive home minutes before our guests and have everything ready to roll!

Crock-pot Chocolate Pudding Cake (dairy free, gluten free, corn free, soy free options)

• 1 pkg (3.9oz) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix (or check out www.allrecipes.com for an allergy free recipe sub)
• 3 cups milk (regular, almond, coconut)
• 1 pkg (2 layer size) chocolate fudge cake mix (I use Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix)
• 2 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate chopped (sprinkle Enjoy Life chocolate chips for dairy/soy free)
• 2 cups thawed cool whip or whip cream (Soy whipped cream if soy tolerant, or omit, I didn't mind the omission :))

To Make It:

• Spray your crock-pot with cooking spray, or lightly coat with shortening. (Some Pam sprays have soy so check labels). Beat pudding mix and milk in your crock-pot with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. The recipe calls for a 3 1/2 quart but I have the larger oval and it worked fine.
• In another bowl prepare the cake batter according to the boxes instructions. Slowly pour it over the pudding mixture. DO NOT STIR. Cover the crock-pot with the lid.
• Cook on low 2 1/2 - 3 hours (or on high 1 1/2 - 2 hours) until toothpick inserted comes out of cake clean. Top with chopped chocolate or chips. Turn off the cooker and let stand covered 30 minutes to allow the pudding to thicken. Serve with cool whip and dusted with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.
  

My Must Have Kitchen Gadget for the holidays: Hands down it was my new Beka sauce pan. I whipped up quick quesidillas, chocolate sauces, you name it in there and was able to wash and reuse in minutes. The non-stick coating is amazing and a few more of these will be on my Christmas list for next year. And even better...this company has an environmental record that puts most other companies to shame. I just love them! Check them out here.

My 'Couldn't get dinner on the table without it' recipe sites: I have two favorites without question are Dinner Tool and All Recipes. Dinner Tool lets me meal plan, add my own recipes, create shopping lists and have a quick printout of my weeks plan. Allrecipes.com lets me search by ingredients so I can plug in something I'm trying to get out of the pantry or fridge and up pops a slew of choices. LOVE IT!

My favorite photo sharing site: With all the IPads, E-readers, and smartphones out there we've become a society of digital sharing. In most cases I'm right on that bandwagon but some vestiges of society are being lost in the cyber rush. I firmly believe it teaches real values for kids to recognize the generosity of Christmas and respond with a heartfelt thank you note. However I've found that over the last few years it is tough to interest my oldest in writing them. This year I stepped up my game and we used Smilebox to create digital thank you cards we could send to family. Normally this would have gone against my edict that thank you notes are personal and it's hard to get that touch with a digital card, but Smilebox allows you to add video clips to your card. So we sat down and recorded a bunch of 10-30 second clips on our Flip with my son thanking friends and family for their gifts. Each person got an individual thank you card with a video clip of Alex thanking them. Better than forcing him to sit at the table and write his name on cards he couldn't read, this worked great. He could relate to this and I loved the message he got from working with me to put it together.

Last but not least to catch me up over the last few weeks...Livi turned 6 months. It's been an amazing time with her and we are truly blessed to have such an angel living with us.

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Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Corn Free Pumpkin Cookies

I was seriously upset about the lack of pumpkin pie in my holiday future, so I tweaked some recipes and came up with these. They're delicious and have added benefits for nursing moms. I also made a quick icing glaze for about half of them and it was the perfect touch!

Ingredients:
2 cups gluten free flour (I used 2/3 cup each: Sorghum, Brown Rice and White Rice)
1 1/3 Gluten free rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp guar gum
2 Tbsp Brewers yeast
1 2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup canola oil (for corn free use grapeseed oil)
2 Tbsp molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup cranberries or raisins (I used cranberries)
1 cup walnuts finely chopped (optional, take out for nut free)

How to make:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your baking sheets. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, guar gum, and brewers yeast in a mixing bowl.

In another bowl mix sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla, and flax seeds. Add contents from the first bowl to this one and fold. Fold in nuts if using, and cranberries.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to fill your cookie sheet. (I made one sheet and then filled the next one and froze it. once the cookies were frozen I put them in an airtight container and they were ready to bake anytime I needed them...plus they lasted more than 24 hours :)). These don't spread a lot so you can flatten them if you want crispier cookies.

Bake for about 15 minutes. This recipe makes about 4 dz cookies.

NOTE: If you are not gluten free, use all purpose flour, and omit the guar gum.

Yummy Monte Cristo Sandwiches...Gluten free to boot~

I came across this recipe from Pamela's Products past recipe competitions. It's delish!

Easy Monte Cristo Sandwiches

2 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix (same as for the gluten free doughnuts) a BIG bag is $15 but lasts a while
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoon milk

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
12 slices gluten-free thinly sliced ham
12 slices gluten-free thinly sliced turkey
2/3 cup strawberry fruit spread
powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

Yield: 6 servings

Instructions:
Heat oven to 375º.

Lightly grease an 8-inch x 8-inch square baking dish. Mix the Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix and the butter with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, add the milk, and stir with a fork. Put half the mixture in the bottom of your baking pan, then sprinkle on 1 cup mozzarella, 1/2 of the thinly sliced ham, then 1/2 of the thinly sliced turkey. Spread strawberry fruit spread on top spreading to within 1/2 inch of the edge, then layer the last half of the ham, then the last half of the turkey, then sprinkle on 1 cup mozzarella. Spread the rest of the baking mix on top, and bake for 30 minutes. When nicely browned remove from the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Cut into wedges and enjoy.

I think this would make great lunches / cute tea party sandwiches if you made mini versions in a muffin tin.

Gluten Free Donuts--Amazing!

It's official! We have a new family favorite recipe for breakfast. It's been years since we did a family donut run (although Alex and I have snuck off a few times). A few days ago I was playing on the Pioneer Woman's website and hopped over to www.TastyKitchen.com. They have a whole section of Gluten free recipes and this one caught my eye.

I have to admit, I've made them twice and they are FABULOUS! No eggs, no corn, no gluten and easy to substitute the dairy if you need to (I used Almond Milk this morning). These are baked, cake like donuts and are absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

* 100 grams Cream Cheese
* 60 grams Sugar
* 4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
* 8 Tablespoons Milk
* 5 milliliters Vanilla
* ¼ teaspoons Salt
* 200 grams Gluten Free Baking Mix

To make:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease doughnut pan well with oil or butter or margarine. I didn't have a doughnut pan so I used my mini bundt pan and it worked perfectly.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, oil, milk, vanilla and salt together until well blended. Add baking mix and mix until well incorporated. I used Pamela's baking mix.

Place mixture into a ziptop bag and snip off one corner. Pipe into the doughnut molds. Bake in the middle section of your oven for approximately 25 minutes. When they are done, the doughnuts will pull away from sides of pan and spring back when touched, just like a cake.

Remove from pan and either frost, glaze, or sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. I made a variety by melting a little left over chocolate frosting in the microwave and dipping the tops in that. I covered the chocolate in sprinkles for my kiddo. Eric prefers the ones dipped lightly in melted butter and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and I love the with chocolate and a light dusting of powdered sugar. These were great warm, but they are just as good cold. Enjoy.

End of Year Party and an Incredibly Moist Cake Recipe

Alex and I had a lot of fun whipping up some super yummy snacks for his end of year bash. I'm just getting around to posting this since the start of Preschool has kept me so busy, but this recipe deserves its five minutes of fame and then some!

I always love a new recipe but a new healthy recipe is just great! Recently there was a lot of discussion in one of my Mom's groups about the "Sprite Cake." This cake was a huge hit with my weight watchers crowd back in the day since it cuts all the oil and eggs out of the recipe helping to keep down the calories and fat content.

The added bonus is the INCREDIBLE moistness of these cakes. Seriously...you won't believe it until you try it.

Are you ready...

Take one box of cake mix (any kind) and mix it with 10 ounces of regular soft drink (I used Coke with a chocolate cake, and Sprite with a yellow cake). Add two TBSPs of sour cream, mix it up and bake as a cake or cupcakes. That's it! :)

For the frosting I like to buy regular frosting, whatever happens to be on sale for the week, and make my own lighter whipped frosting. Just put a can of frosting into your kitchen aid (or a bowl and use a hand mixer), add any flavorings you might like, and whip the frosting on medium to high for 4 or 5 minutes. Voila, yummy, light, whipped frosting.

Since this recipe didn't involve any eggs, or oil, Alex got to do the honors of pouring in the coke and turning on the mixer. I handled the sprinkles, only because of a previous Easter cookie incident that involved having to re-sweep and mop all the floors! :)

Hope you Enjoy, the kiddos in Alex's class sure did!